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Volume 1 | Issue 1 | April 2011

CHILDREN MAGAZINE

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CONTENTS

Introduction 3 City Bytes: Pune 4 Story: The Golden Plate 6 Project: Recycle Junk mail to make beautiful trees 7 Project: April Calendar 8 Puzzles 9 History Bytes: Aryabhatta 10 Book review 13 Puzzles 14 History Facts 15 Project: Make an Abacus at home 16 Cover Story: DON QUIXOTE de la MANCHA 17 Coloring Pages 18 Garden Project: How to grow tomatoes at home 20

Departments:

VidyapeethIndia

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Editor’s Desk

We the team of VidyapeethIndia feels greatly elated to publish our first issue of the

children magazine. This magazine aims at bringing the joy of reading to children,

youngsters and their family members. We believe in minimizing paper use and thus

saving trees. So, we will bring you only digitized copy of our magazine which can be

downloaded freely from our website http://vidyapeethindia.com/.

The cover page of this issue is dedicated to Don Quixote who is a character from the novel ‘The ingenious

gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha’ written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. This gentleman loves to

read books of chivalry and indulges himself in various adventures. City bites gives some facts about Pune city which

happens to be the workplace of Vidyapeeth India team. This is followed by a short story ‘The Golden Plate’. Art &

Craft section brings you some interesting projects which we hope you will do yourself and enjoy. There are puzzles

for exercising your brain. Article on ‘Aryabhatta’ throws light on the work and life of the great mathematician. We

have book review section in which we try to bring you few details about interesting books for children. Gardening

section has garden projects that children can do with their parents and enjoy.

We hope that you will thoroughly enjoy every section of this magazine. You can also send your articles, stories, etc

to us. Please do not forget to come up with suggestions and remarks, so that we can incorporate those in our next

issues. Do write to us at info@vidyapeethindia.com.

Have fun, Rudrarup Mitra

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Pune Former name: Poona Country: India State: Maharashtra District: Pune Subdistrict: Haveli taluka Population: 3,446,330 Area: 1109.69 km

2

Altitude: 560 metres

City Bytes

Pune also known as Punya-Nagari, is the eighth largest city in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the center of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula and Mutha rivers. Pune is known to have existed as a town since 937 AD. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the founder of the Maratha Empire, lived in Pune as a young boy, and later oversaw significant growth and development of the town during his reign. In 1730, Pune became an important political center as the seat of the Peshwa, the prime minister of the Chhatrapati of Satara. After the town was annexed to British India in 1817, it served as a cantonment town and as the "monsoon capital" of the Bombay Presidency until the independence of India. Today, Pune is known for its educational facilities and relative prosperity. Pune is the cultural capital of Maharashtra, and the notional seat of the Marathi language. Pune has well-established manufacturing, glass, sugar, and forging industries since the 1950-60s.

It has a growing industrial hinterland, with many information technology and automotive companies setting up factories in Pune district. The city is known for various cultural activities like classical music, spirituality, theater, sports, and literature. The name Pune derives from Punya Nagari (Sanskrit, "City of Virtue"). The oldest reference to this name was found on a Rashtrakuta copper plate dated 937, that refer to the town as Punya-Vishaya or Poonak Vishaya. By the 13th century, it had come to be known as Kasbe Pune or Punavadi. Although the city's name is sometimes transcribed as Poona in English, a practice particularly common during the British Raj, the spelling "Pune" has now become standard. After the fall of the Marathas in 1818 and establishment of educational institutions by the British, Pune came to be referred to as the Oxford of the East due to its large student population, and a large number of quality academic and research institutes.

Medieval era Copper plates dated 758 and 768 show that, by the 8th century, an agricultural settlement known as Punnaka existed where Pune is today. The plates indicate that this region was ruled by the Rashtrakuta Dynasty. The Pataleshwar rock-cut temple complex was built during this era. Pune was part of Yadava Empire of Deogiri from the 9th century to 1327. In 1595, Maloji Raje Bhosale was appointed the jagirdar of Pune and Supe by the Mughals. It was ruled by the Ahmadnagar Sultanate until being annexed by the Mughal Empire in the 17th century.

Maratha rule In 1625, Shahaji Bhosale appointed Rango Bapuji Dhadphale as the administrator of Pune. He was one of the first major developers of the town, overseeing construction of the Kasba Peth, Somwar Peth, Raviwar Peth and Shaniwar Peth. After the destruction of the

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town in raids by the Adil Shahi dynasty in 1630, and again from 1636 to 1647, Dadoji Kondadev, a military and administrative officer of Shahaji Bhosale, oversaw redevelopment and construction of the area. He stabilized the revenue system of Pune and the neighborhoods of Maval to the west of town as well as developed effective methods to control disputes and enforce law and order. Construction began on the Lal Mahal Palace, as Shahaji's son Shivaji Bhosale (later Chattrapati Shivaji) was to move there with his mother Jijabai. The Ganapati idol consecrated at this temple is regarded as the presiding deity (gramadevata) of the city.

Shivaji was crowned Chhatrapati in 1674. He oversaw further development in Pune, including the construction of the Guruwar, Somwar, Ganesh and Ghorpade Peths. Shivaji Maharaj encouraged development of dams in Parvati and Kondhwa regions of Pune for agriculture purpose. Pune and

surrounding villages later provided manpower for Shivaji's efforts to build an army during the period from 1645 to 1680. In between 1660 to 1670 the town was captured by Mughal General Shahista Khan, but was recaptured by the Marathas in 1670 after the battle of Sinhagad. During the 27-year long conflict between the Marathas and the Mughals, the town was occupied by Aurangzeb from 1703 to 1705. Two years later, the Marathas recaptured Sinhagad fort and later Pune city from the Mughals as had been done in 1670. In 1720, Baji Rao I was appointed Peshwa (Prime Minister) of the Maratha Empire, ruled by Chattrapati Shahuji. He selected Pune as his base and started construction of Shaniwarwada on the banks of the Mutha River. The construction was completed in 1730, ushering the era of Peshwa control of the city. The patronage of the Peshwas resulted in the construction of many temples and bridges in the city, including the Lakdi Pul and the temples on Parvati Hill. Bajirao Peshwa also constructed an underground aqueduct to bring water from Katraj Lake to Shaniwarwada. The aqueduct is still operational.

Pune prospered as a city during the reign of Nanasaheb Peshwe. He developed Saras Baug, Heera Baug, Parvati Temple and new commercial, trading and residential localilties. The Sadashiv Peth, Narayan Peth, Rasta Peth and Nana Peth were developed in this era. The Peshwas fell into decline after their defeat in the Third Battle of Panipat in 1761.

British Rule The Third Anglo-Maratha War broke out between the Marathas and the British in 1817. The Peshwas were defeated at the Battle of Khadki (then transcribed Kirkee) on November 5 near Pune, and the city was seized by the British. It was placed under the administration of the Bombay Presidency, and the British built a large military cantonment to the east of the city (now used by the Indian Army). The Pune Municipality was established in 1858. Navi Peth, Ganj Peth and Mahatma Phule Peth are believed to have developed during the British Raj. Nana Sahib Peshwa, the adopted son of the last Peshwa Bajirao II, rose against the rule of British East India Company as a part of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, known in India as the First War Of Independence. He was helped by Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi and Tatya Tope. At the end of the war, the final remnants of the Maratha Empire were annexed to British India. Many prominent social reformers and freedom fighters lived in Pune, including Bal Gangadhar Tilak (also known as Lokmanya Tilak), Vitthal Ramji Shinde, Dhondo Keshav Karve and Jyotirao Phule.

After Independence After Indian independence in 1947, Pune saw a lot of development, such as the establishment of the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla and the National Chemical Laboratory at Pashan. Pune serves as the headquarters of the Southern Command of the Indian Army. Industrial development started in the 1950s and '60s in Hadapsar, Bhosari, Pimpri, and Parvati. IT Parks were established in Aundh, Hinjawadi and on Nagar Road.

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Story

The Golden Plate (Greed and Honesty) Once upon a time in a place called Seri, there were two salesmen of pots and pans and hand-made trinkets. They agreed to divide the town between them. They also said that after one had gone through his area, it was all right for the other to try and sell where the first had already been. One day, while one of them was coming down a street, a poor little girl saw him and asked her grandmother to buy her a bracelet. The old grandmother replied, "How can we poor people buy bracelets?" The little girl said, "Since we don't have any money, we can give our black sooty old plate." The old woman agreed to give it a try, so she invited the dealer inside. The salesman saw that these people were very poor and innocent, so he didn't want to waste his time with them. Even though the old woman pleaded with him, he said he had no bracelet that she could afford to buy. Then she asked, "We have an old plate that is useless to us, can we trade it for a bracelet?" The man took it and, while examining it, happened to scratch the bottom of it. To his surprise, he saw that underneath the black soot, it was a golden plate! But he didn't let on that he had noticed it. Instead he decided to deceive these poor people so he could get the plate for next to nothing. He said 'This is not worth even one bracelet, there's no value in this, I don't want it!" He left, thinking he would return later when they would accept even less for the plate. Meanwhile the other salesman, after finishing in his part of town, followed after the first as they had agreed. He ended up at the same house. Again the poor little girl begged her grandmother to trade the old plate for a bracelet. The woman saw that this was a nice tender looking merchant and thought, "He's a good man, not like the rough-talking first salesman." So she invited him in and offered to trade the same black sooty old plate for one bracelet. When he examined it, he too saw that it was pure gold under the grime. He said to the old woman, "All my goods and all my money together are not worth as much as this rich golden plate!"

Of course the woman was shocked at this discovery, but now she knew that he was indeed a good and honest fellow. So she said she would be glad to accept whatever he could trade for it. The salesman said, "I'll give you all my pots and pans and trinkets, plus all my money, if you will let me keep just eight coins and my balancing scale, with its cover to put the golden plate in." They made the trade. He went down to the river, where he paid the eight coins to the ferry man to take him across. By then the greedy salesman had returned, already adding up huge imaginary profits in his head. When he met the little girl and her grandmother again, he said he had changed his mind and was willing to offer a few

cents, but not one of his bracelets, for the useless black sooty old plate. The old woman then calmly told him of the trade she had just made with the honest salesman, and said, "Sir, you lied to us." The greedy salesman was not ashamed of his lies, but he was saddened as he thought, "I've lost the golden plate that must be worth a hundred thousand." So he asked the woman, "Which way did he go?" She told him the direction. He left all

his things right there at her door and ran down to the river, thinking, "He robbed me! He robbed me! He won't make a fool out of me!" From the riverside he saw the honest salesman still crossing over on the ferry boat. He shouted to the ferry man, "Come back!" But the good merchant told him to keep on going to the other side, and that's what he did. Seeing that he could do nothing, the greedy salesman exploded with rage. He jumped up and down, beating his chest. He became so filled with hatred towards the honest man, who had won the golden plate, that he made himself cough up blood. He had a heart attack and died on the spot! The moral is: "Honesty is the best policy."

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Project

Recycle Junk mail to make beautiful trees

Little trees made of junk mail and cardboard paper. We used white paper here but you can really use any color you choose as long as it is junk. Card board is used for strength. Materials used: Junk mail or paper (we used paper with greenery in it) Cardboard or any type of hard paper (for firmness) White Glue Scissors (Parental guidance is required while using sharp tools) Cutting surface (do not use table top with dinner mats) Step1: Glue the paper to the cardboard. Make sure the paper is glued evenly. Step2: Draw and cutout your tree on the cardboard. Make sure that the tree trunk is almost same in width and height. Step3: Make a cut perpendicular to the base (this is important or your tree will tilt on the side) on each tree. The cut on one tree trunk goes 3/4 of the way up. The cut on the second tree goes down 1/4 of the tree trunk. The idea is that when you slide them into place the base of both trees must be even. Make sure to erase any pencil marks.

Step4: Slide both the parts to make the full tree. Now your tree is colored on one side and white on the other side.

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April Calendar

Tools and materials:

Scissors, Scale, used ball-point pen,

chart paper or any stiff paper suitable

for printer

Make a cool Calendar for your study

table the month of April.

Notation keys:

Mountain fold

Scissors Line

Assembly Instruction:

Print this page on a stiff paper such

as chart paper.

Cut along the scissors line.

Fold along the fold line.

And you are done with a nice little

desktop calendar for your study

table.

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Puzzles

Sudoku

The objective is to fill the 9×9 grid with

digits so that each column, each row, and

each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that

compose the grid contain all of the digits

from 1 to 9. The puzzle may not have a

unique solution.

Word Search

Find the words in the grid below.

Tiger Elephant Loin Frog

Hayena Snake Lizard Bear

Cow Pig Goat Dog

Cat Camelion Rhinoceros Yak

Giraffe Zebra Cheetah Bison

A C O R I O T T A L E G I A P E Z Y I G G C I E R

K H A O I A C F A H E I O I T D R F O H O O I R N

G N G A A H O T G C E R G A A R A S O C B O H E T

O G E N F E R A R O N O C S I D S E C T H I L D O

B I E O D L Z E E I Y O A N H E F M N A N E E E O

G A L G R S H N F N C L A E D C S R L O P E C H W

R Y E E A E S C L F A C K G A G I E C H A E E A H

A O H E T H G A A B A G N K I B F E A I K H E R A

O O E E E C Z E S M C R O E D T R N T A H K G E R

I N R D A S T S I Y E B I R L O T I N T A H N R C

N R I F I A C A T T Y L A G S R R S O G P N N L N

L O E I R H C B I N A Z I E D G E A A A F T A O C

E O H B Z I K N R T I E I O P L O E N T O N H H Y

R Y E C G B C L E L A F H E N O S O E E N F E H I

T Z I I T E G C I A T O M P T A B O E A Y E E L R

E R E R P N G I S C C F G R M A D E K C T A E K A

O T W F O H R N E I R A T T O A L T A A E B H A A

M O N A T E L O L O H I N R E O C G H R E B Y S R

R T I C I S S O G O E G S D S B F T R R E O N H T

P G B M E A A T L W I A Y A E A O R N L C L A O H

C E P I E E M L A R A N T I T K I R E H A C A O O

T R O I S E E A N E I K O C E T O R I G N H A E D

A Z B F W O G N H R W E I R G A O Z N K I C E O T

C E O S O I N I A O I R S L C N O C A W B T G C C

E A D I E G C E C C H O E A H E I Y N T N H A N E

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Aryabhatta computed

Earth's circumference

as 24,835 miles,

which was only 0.2%

smaller than the

actual value of 24,902

miles.

History Bytes

Aryabhatta

Aryabhatta was the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. Born in 476 A.D at Patliputra in Magadha which is known as the modern Patna in

Bihar. Some people argue that he was born in the South of India mostly Kerala. But it cannot be disproved that he was not born in Patlipura and then travelled to Magadha where he was educated and established a coaching center. Bhāskara I (629 A.D.) identifies Kusumapura as Pataliputra (modern Patna). Aryabhatta lived there in the dying years of the Gupta Empire, the time which is known as the golden age of India, when it was already under Hun attack in the Northeast, during the reign of Buddhagupta and some of the smaller kings before Vishnugupta. Aryabhatta is the author of several treatises on mathematics and astronomy, some of which are lost. His most famous works are the Aryabhatiya (499 A.D.) and Arya-Siddhanta. His major work, Aryabhatiya, a compendium of mathematics and astronomy, was extensively referred to in the Indian mathematical literature, and has survived to modern times. Aryabhatiya is recognized as a masterpiece. His genius led the ruler Gupta to promote him as the head of the University. His contributions in Mathematics are spectacular and very valuable.

A third text that may have survived in Arabic translation is the Al ntf or Al-nanf, which claims to be a translation of Aryabhatta, but the Sanskrit name of this work is not known. It is mentioned by the Persian scholar and chronicler of India, Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī. Direct details of Aryabhatta's work are therefore known only from the Aryabhatiya. The name Aryabhatiya is due to later analysts, Aryabhatta himself may not have given it a name, it is referred by his disciple Bhāskara I as Ashmakatantra or the treatise from the Ashmaka. It is also occasionally referred to as Arya-shatas-ashta (Aryabhatta's 108), which is the number of verses in the text. It is written in the very terse style typical of the sutra literature, where each line is an aid to memory for a complex system.

Thus, the explication of meaning is due to commentators. The entire text consists of 108 verses, plus an introductory 13, the whole being divided into four padas or chapters:

Gitikapada: Units of time, cosmology. Also includes the table of sines, given in a single verse. It also contains the calculations of planetary revolutions.

Ganitapada (33 verses): covering mensuration, arithmetic and geometric progressions, gnomon / shadows (shanku-chhaya), simple, quadratic, simultaneous, and indeterminate equations.

Kalakriyapada (25 verses): different units of time and method of determination of positions of planets for a given day. Calculations concerning the intercalary month. Presents a seven-day week, with names for days of week.

Golapada (50 verses): Geometric and trigonometric aspects of the celestial sphere, features of the ecliptic, celestial equator, node, shape of the earth, cause of day and night, rising of zodiacal signs on horizon etc.

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The number place-value system, first seen in the 3rd century Bakhshali Manuscript was clearly in place in his work, the knowledge of zero was implicit in Aryabhatta's place-value system as a place holder for the powers of ten with null coefficients. Aryabhatta worked on the approximation for Pi (π), and may have realized that π is irrational. In the second part of the Aryabhatiyam, he writes chaturadhikam śatamaśaguam dvāśaśistathā sahasrāām Ayutadvayaviśkambhasyāsanno vrîttapariaha.

"Add four to 100, multiply by eight and then add 62,000. By this rule the circumference of a circle of diameter 20,000 can be approached."

In other words, π= ~ 62832/20000 = 3.1416 correct to five digits.

The commentator Nilakantha Somayaji interprets the word āsanna (approaching), appearing just before the last word, as saying that not only that is this approximation, but that the value is incommensurable (or irrational). If this is correct, it is quite a sophisticated insight, for the irrationality of pi was proved in Europe only in 1761 by Lambert. He was the first to find integer solutions to equations that have the form ax + b = cy, a topic that has come to be known as diophantine equations. Here is an example from Bhaskara's explanation on Aryabhatiya.

Find the number which gives 5 as the remainder when divided by 8; 4 as the remainder when divided by 9; and 1 as the remainder when divided by 7.

i.e. find N = 8x+5 = 9y+4 = 7z+1. It turns out that the smallest value for N is 85.

In general, diophantine equations can be notoriously difficult. Such equations were considered extensively in the ancient Vedic text

Sulba Sutras. Aryabhatta's method of solving such problems, called the Kuttaka method. Kuttaka means pulverizing, that is breaking into small pieces, and the method involved a recursive algorithm for writing the original factors in terms of smaller numbers. Today this algorithm, as elaborated by Bhaskara in 621 AD, is the standard method for solving first order Diophantine equations, and it is often referred to as the Aryabhatta algorithm. His definitions of sine, as well as cosine (kojya), versine (ukramajya), and inverse sine (otkram jya), influenced the birth of trigonometry. He was also the first to specify sine and versine (1 - cosx) tables, in 3.75° intervals from 0° to 90°, to an accuracy of 4 decimal places. In fact, the modern names "sine" and "cosine", are a mis-transcription of the words jya and kojya as introduced by Aryabhatta. They were transcribed as jiba and kojiba in Arabic. The Arya-siddhanta, a lost work on astronomical

computations, is known through the writings of Aryabhatta's contemporary Varahamihira, as well as through later mathematicians and commentators including Brahmagupta and Bhaskara I. This work appears to be based on the older Surya Siddhanta, and uses the midnight-day-reckoning, as opposed to sunrise in Aryabhatiya.

This also contained a description of several astronomical instruments, the gnomon (shanku-yantra), a shadow instrument (chhaya-yantra), possibly angle-measuring devices, semi-circle and circle shaped (dhanur-yantra / chakra-yantra), a cylindrical stick (yasti-yantra), an umbrella-shaped device called (chhatra-yantra), and water clocks of at least two types, bow-shaped and cylindrical. Aryabhatta was the first to expound that the Earth is round and days and nights are caused because the Earth rotates around its axis. He also

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rightly explained about the occurrence of the eclipses. According to the Hindu Mythology, solar and lunar eclipses occur because "Rahu" gobbled up the moon and the sun. But he said the eclipses transpired due to the shadows cast by the Earth and the Moon. Aryabhatta's system of astronomy was called the Audayaka system (days are reckoned from uday, dawn at lanka, equator). Some of his later writings on astronomy, which apparently proposed a second model (ardha-ratrika, midnight), are lost, but can be partly reconstructed from the discussion in Brahmagupta's khandakhadyaka. Aryabhatta appears to have believed that the earth rotates about its axis. This is made clear in the statement, referring to Lanka, which describes the movement of the stars as a relative motion caused by the rotation of the earth:

Like a man in a boat moving forward sees the stationary objects as moving backward, just so are the stationary stars seen by the people in lanka (i.e. on the equator) as moving exactly towards the West.

Lanka (Sri Lanka) is here a reference point on the equator, which was taken as the equivalent to the reference meridian for astronomical calculations. Aryabhatta described a geocentric model of the solar system, in which the Sun and Moon are each carried by epicycles which in turn revolve around the Earth. In this model, which is also found in the Paitāmahasiddhānta (425 A.D.), the motions of the planets are each governed by two epicycles, a smaller manda (slow) epicycle and a larger śīghra (fast) epicycle. The order of the planets in terms of distance from earth is taken as: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The positions and periods of the planets were calculated relative to uniformly moving points, which in the case of Mercury and Venus, move around the Earth at the same speed as the mean

Sun and in the case of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn move around the Earth at specific speeds representing each planet's motion through the zodiac. Most historians of astronomy consider that this two epicycle model reflects elements of pre-Ptolemaic Greek astronomy. Another element in Aryabhatta's model, the śīghrocca, the basic planetary period in relation to the Sun, is seen by some historians as a sign of an underlying heliocentric model. He states that the Moon and planets shine by reflected sunlight. Instead of the prevailing cosmogony where eclipses were caused by pseudo-planetary nodes Rahu and Ketu, he explains eclipses in terms of shadows cast by and falling on earth. Thus the lunar eclipse occurs when the moon enters into the earth-shadow, and discusses at length the size and extent of this earth-shadow, and then the computation, and the size of the eclipsed part during eclipses. Subsequent Indian astronomers improved on these calculations, but his methods provided the core. This computational paradigm was so accurate that the 18th century scientist Guillaume le Gentil, during a visit to Pondicherry, found the Indian computations of the duration of the lunar eclipse of 30th august 1765 to be short by 41 seconds, whereas his charts (by Tobias Mayer, 1752) were long by 68 seconds. Aryabhatta's computation of Earth's circumference as 24,835 miles, which was only 0.2% smaller than the actual value of 24,902 miles. This approximation might have improved on the computation by the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes (200 B.C.), whose exact computation is not known in modern units. His contribution is so vast that it is hard to write a small gist of the whole thing. In acknowledgement to his contributions in Astronomy and maths, India's first satellite Aryabhatta, was named after him. The lunar crater Aryabhatta is named in his honor.

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Book review

The Burmese Box: Two Novellas Translated By Lila Majumdar Introduced By Subhadra Sen Gupta ‘I’m going to find that box, the box that’s been missing for a hundred years … Do you know, there are precious gems in it, worth a king’s ransom?

Emeralds the size of a rooster’s egg, rubies as big as pigeons’ eggs, pearls the size of a duck’s egg! Aunt Podi’s treasured Burmese box was a part of family history. When Panchu Mama narrates the hair-raising story of how it was acquired and the mysterious circumstances in which it got lost, Goopy decides to find the fabled box and its precious contents. ‘The Burmese Box’ is an action-packed story of a family on a treasure hunt, as they grapple with devious plans and nasty crooks, a highly suspicious detective and eccentric relatives. In ‘Goopy’s Secret Diary’, con men, hidden treasures, a stolen necklace and the secret of an old mansion make for a fascinating read as we follow Goopy’s rollicking adventures in a forest. Featuring two novellas, The Burmese Box is beloved children’s author Lila Majumdar at her best. Her impeccable style and trademark humour will keep generations of readers in thrall.

On the Run with Fotikchand By Satyajit Ray Translated By Gopa Majumdar The first incredibly gripping adventure in a heart-stopping new series by Puffin called ‘Classic Adventures’ Follow Fotikchand’s

adventures through the colourful and dangerous streets of Kolkata in this action-packed thriller! An eleven-year-old boy, Bablu, gets kidnapped by four goons. As they make their escape in a stolen car, they meet with an accident and two of the goons die on the spot while the boy loses consciousness. The two surviving kidnappers, presuming the boy to be dead, leave him stranded. When Bablu regains consciousness, he realizes he has lost his memory. In his wanderings, he befriends a street juggler, Harun, who gives him shelter and introduces him to a new way of life. Bablu, now called Fotik, spends his days working in a tea shop, while his evenings are spent assisting Harun on his street shows. Gradually they develop a bond that makes them inseparable till one day the kidnappers spot Fotik, and Harun and he are forced to be on the run again. On the Run with Fotikchand is a thrilling story of everlasting friendship. Riveting and racy, it’ll have you turning the pages till the end.

Out of the mouth of children... Grandpa and granddaughter were sitting talking when she asked, "Did God make you, Grandpa?" "Yes, God

made me", the grandfather answered. A few minutes later, the little girl asked him, "Did God make me too?" "Yes, He did," the older man answered. For a few minutes, the little girl seemed to be studying her grandpa, as well as her own reflection in the mirror, while her grandfather wondered what was running through her

mind. At last she spoke up. "You know, Grandpa," she said, "God is doing a lot better job lately."

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Puzzles

Mr. Ram’s car broke down in the middle of the forest. Help the Tow Truck reach Mr. Ram’s car.

Fill in the missing numbers

Use the numbers 1 through 16 to complete the equations.

Each number is only used once. Each row is a math equation. Each column is a math equation. Remember that multiplication and division are performed before addition and subtraction.

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History Facts

Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the winter of 1946 or 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd named Mohammed edh-Dhib, who was looking for his lost goat. In his search, he came across a cave where he found several nearly-complete scrolls hidden in clay jars. The ancient scrolls contained text from the Old Testament, and they were written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls are located at two sites in Israel. One is the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem, which is under the authority of the Israel Antiquities Authority and for which access is grated only to certified researchers. The other is the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in West Jerusalem. Additional scrolls are found in the Amman Archaeological Museum in Jordan, and several fragments are in the French National Library in Paris and in the hands of private collectors.

Which is the oldest civilization based on reliably dated evidence?

This depends so much on how we define a civilization! The first permanent farming settlements were established in the Middle East in approximately 8000 B.C. By 6000 to 5500 B.C., irrigation has developed and the roots of the Mesopotamian civilization were in place. By 3300 the city of Uruk had two great temples, and its priests and accountants had developed cuneiform writing. Other early farming communities are India (7000 B.C.) and China (6500 B.C.), both of which led eventually to civilizations. The Indus valley civilization emerged in 2700 B.C., while the Xia dynasty in China developed in 2100 B.C.

What was the language in ancient Mesopotamia?

The people of ancient Mesopotamia spoke a number of languages, including Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Phoenician, Semitic, and Sumerian. The script that was used to write many of the ancient Mesopotamian languages was called cuneiform, that wedge-shaped writing on clay tablets you may be familiar with. Cuneiform was used to write several languages just as the alphabet we use to write English is also used to write French, Spanish, German, etc.

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Materials Needed:

9 ice-cream (craft) sticks

8 or more toothpicks or wooden sticks

Plastic craft beads

Glue

Pencil

Project

Make an Abacus at home

The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes. Today, abaci are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants, traders and clerks in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. The user of an abacus is called an abacist. Let us make an Abacus out of easily available household items.

Procedure: Cut a single toothpick approximately 10cm. The number of toothpicks you use depends on how many place values you want on your abacus to be. (The abacus in the picture has eight place values.) Place the tips of the cut dowels on one ice-cream stick, centered and equidistant from each other. Mark their places with a pencil.

Squeeze lines of glue over the pencil marks. Carefully place the toothpick tips onto the glue. After the glue dries, thread two pony beads on each toothpick. These will be your "Heaven beads". Place a second ice-cream stick underneath the toothpicks about 1cm down from the first ice-cream stick. This will serve as the center bar which separates the "Heaven" beads from the "Earth" beads. Mark the toothpick positions with pencil marks and squeeze glue lines over these. Glue the toothpicks onto this stick. Be careful to not let any beads slide toward this stick and accidentally and glue it. After the glue on the second ice-cream stick has dried, thread five beads on each toothpick. These will be your "Earth" beads. Place a third ice-cream stick underneath and at the tips of the toothpicks. Repeat the gluing procedures as stated above. After the glue has dried, get three more ice-cream sticks. Line up a ice-cream stick over each of the three you glued the toothpicks to. Make sure they're positioned properly. Next, glue these sticks down where you placed them earlier. Take three more ice-cream sticks. Glue these directly onto the three you just glued. You're now looking at the back of your abacus. You'll see that these extra sticks lift the abacus off the table so the beads don't rub against it during use. Flip the abacus over. Congratulations! Enjoy your abacus!

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Cover Story

DON QUIXOTE de la MANCHA

Don Quixote liked to read. He liked to read a lot. He liked to read so much that he pretty much stopped doing everything else. This is not a good idea unless you are very rich, and he was not. He lived on a farm that had once been fairly prosperous and large, but in addition to ignoring his daily chores, he had begun to sell off pieces of his property in order to buy more books. But the real problem seemed to be his choice of books. He read every book about knights and knight-errantry he could get his paws on. So these books about knights were very popular, but Don Quixote took the craze one step further and decided that he should become a knight himself and devote his life to the knight’s code of chivalry. And that’s just what he did. for Don Quixote, this was overcome by a very active and stubborn imagination. His skinny and old plow-horse became a great knight’s stallion as soon as he changed the horse’s name to Rozinante. Fortunately He renamed a poor local farm girl and she became the great Lady Dulcinea del Toboso who he performed his great deeds for and remained endlessly devoted to even though he apparently had never spoken to her and she was entirely unaware of his existence. And then there were the windmills. Any great knight with Don Quixote’s imagination could easily see that these were really giants. Equipped with his imagination, an ancient suit of armor, a rusty old lance and shield, and a helmet he partly made out of cardboard, Don Quixote set

out. Poor country inns became castles. Flocks of sheep became armies. Merchants became knights and wizards. Barber’s basins became famous golden helmets. And just about every lady became a damsel in distress who needed to be rescued. Not surprisingly, his adventures usually turned out badly. What is surprising is how many people end up playing along with Don Quixote and his fantasies. He convinces a neighbor named Sancho Panza to become his squire and join his

crazy adventures by making the unlikely promise of giving Sancho an island. Sancho goes through an incredible amount of trouble but remains faithful to the end. Don Quixote’s friends, a local barber and a priest, end up creating a story about a princess in a faraway land who needs Don Quixote’s help in order to lure him back home. They eventually tie him up and put him in a cage, convincing him that he has actually been enchanted by wizards in an effort to

prevent him from resisting. Don Quixote is brought back home and returned to the care of his niece and housekeeper. His books have been removed and destroyed, and even the closet where his books were kept has been walled over. What happens next is the best part. While Don Quixote recovers, Sancho informs him that there has been a book written about them and their many misadventures. Suddenly everyone knows who they are and Don Quixote has, in fact, somehow managed to become a famous knight.

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Coloring Pages

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Coloring Pages

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Materials Needed:

Gardening pot

Garden soil

Manure / compost

Small egg crate

Scissors (Parental guidance is required while using sharp tools)

Fork

Pencil

Book / paper to take notes

Garden Project

How to grow tomatoes at home

There is nice sunshine during the day. No frost appears at night. Now is a great time to grow tomatoes. We will show you how to grow tomatoes at home and enjoy them too!

Starting indoors, in an egg crate of well moistened, soil and compost mix, make shallow furrows with a pencil about 1cm deep. Sow seeds by dropping them along the bottom of the furrows 2cm apart. Gently close together the soil to cover each furrow, covering seeds 1cm deep.

Water gently and label the crate with the date on which you sow the seeds. Put container in a warm place like o top of the refrigerator. As soon as seed begin germinating and stems start to show above the soil, it's critical to provide a strong light source, a very sunny window will be good for the seedlings. Make a note in your diary at which date the seeds germinated and how many.

Around Day 7 most of the seedlings have germinated. First to appear are "baby" or "cotyledon" leaves. Careful measure the length of your seedlings and make notes. Day 15: Seedlings are still tiny with just baby cotyledon leaves, but growing well. Note the nice green color of the baby leaves. This indicates that plants are getting enough bright light to thrive.

Day 30 - The first set of "true" tomato leaves begin to appear above the baby cotyledon leaves. The best example of this is in front of the pencil eraser in this picture. Now that true leaves have emerged on all the seedlings, it's time to transplant seedlings to larger individual containers so they have enough room to properly grow and develop. This process is called "pricking out" the seedlings. To "prick out": lift

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seedlings from below, holding each one gently by their baby cotyledon leaves and scooping up entire soil ball from below. We find an old fork works well for this. If roots have grown together into a clump, gently tease seedlings apart, holding by baby cotyledon leaves. Transplant each seedling into its own pot (at least 10cm in diameter) filled with good quality well moistened potting soil and compost mix. Make a hole to receive each seedling. Insert each seedling into the hole to the base of its cotyledon leaves.

Tomato seedlings will readily grow new roots along their buried stems and the resulting plants will be sturdy and vigorous. Gently water the seedlings to settle the plants.

Here are examples of what healthy and cold stressed seedling look like. Remember that seedlings need to be kept warm after they have true leaves and until they are ready to go into the garden. When the weather has warmed up and night temperatures are regularly warm, it's time to plant well rooted, established seedlings outdoors.

First plan to acclimate your plants: move them outside into the sun, first for a few hours daily, then gradually increasing over a weeks' time until they are in full sun all day. This process is called "hardening off" and it avoids transplant shock. At transplanting time, if hardened off young plants are more than 15cm tall; remove the bottom branches before planting. New roots will form along the buried stem.

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Prepare the hole to receive the seedling. Tip out plant by overturning pot to squeeze or tap out the entire root ball. Note the snipped off lower branches on this example ready to go into the ground. Settle the seedling into the hole, so the entire stem will be covered up to where leafy branches begin. Pull soil around the plant and firm. Water gently but thoroughly and erect your tomato supports. Be sure they are well secured, because your plants will grow large and heavy with fruit, so you will need strong support for the branches.

After about 2 months Enjoy the harvest!

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